AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 16, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Christina
Thomas, and Maria Patterson
This week's issues:
1. Autism Isn't the Problem
2. Science — without the mansplaining
3. Same Course, Different Ratings
4. Female researchers publish childcare
recommendations for conference organizers
5. Watch: Female Astronauts Speak About
Women in STEM
6. Senior female scientist dropout rate
causing concern
7. How
to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
8.
How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
9. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter
1. Autism Isn't the Problem
From: Pat Knezek via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
The below post was written by a
contributor who wishes to use the pseudonym ExUngueLeam.
As a woman with Asperger’s, I have the
dubious of honor of regularly fielding a particular set of questions about
harassment and bullying in academia. These questions usually go something like:
"If a colleague or student of mine is on the autism spectrum, and they are
bullying or harassing someone, don't I need to accommodate for that? If I hold
them accountable for their bad behavior, isn't that... ableist?"
Read more at
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2. Science — without the mansplaining
From: Megan Watzke [mwatzke_at_cfa.harvard.edu]
It’s been a rough year or so if you are a
woman. Or a person who loves science. (Or part of any underrepresented group
for that matter).
A quick online search easily locates where
science intersects with the #metoo movement. (See the #astroSH hashtag as one example,
including new allegations against a famous physicist/cosmologist just a couple
of weeks ago). And despite decades of effort, the number of women and
minorities in highest levels of academic science remain painfully low due to a
variety of factors.
Read more at
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3. Same Course, Different Ratings
From: Alexander Rudolph [alrudolph_at_cpp.edu]
“Our analysis of comments in both formal
student evaluations and informal online ratings indicates that students do
evaluate their professors differently based on whether they are women or men,”
the study says. “Students tend to comment on a woman’s appearance and
personality far more often than a man’s. Women are referred to as ‘teacher’ [as
opposed to professor] more often than men, which indicates that students
generally may have less professional respect for their female professors.”
Read more at
Find the original study at
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4. Female researchers publish childcare
recommendations for conference organizers
From: Nicolle Zellner
[nzellner_at_albion.edu]
An on-going concern is the lack of
childcare at professional conferences. While there are small grants that can
cover some of the expenses, “parents with young children are often excluded
from fully participating in academic conference activities.” A group of women
has made some recommendations.
Read the recommendations at
Read the original “opinion” piece at
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Watch: Female Astronauts Speak About
Women in STEM
From: Nicolle Zellner
[nzellner_at_albion.edu]
“The countdown to National Geographic's
upcoming miniseries One Strange Rock has begun, with two weeks to go before the
series premiere. The brainchild of filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan),
producer Jane Root, and her production company, Nutopia, One Strange Rock will
feature interviews with real-life astronauts -- including Mae Jemison, Nicole
Stott, and Peggy Whitson, who opened up about women in STEM.”
Read more and see the video at
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6. Senior female scientist dropout rate
causing concern
From: Nicolle Zellner
[nzellner_at_albion.edu]
“Women and men enter the life sciences
workforce with advanced degrees at roughly the same rate … but only 17 per cent
of senior academics in Australian universities and research institutes were
women, according to the Office of the Chief Scientist, and women were a
minority of National Health and Medical Research Council fellows.”
Read more at
[Ed. note: requires a subscription]
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7. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN
newsletter
To submit an item to the AASWOMEN
newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_aas.org
All material will be posted unless you
tell us otherwise, including your email address.
When submitting a job posting for
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to the full job posting.
Please remember to replace
"_at_" in the e-mail address above.
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8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the
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9. Access to Past Issues
Each annual summary includes an index of
topics covered.
